The EIA's current survey of cryptocurrency mining facilities, conducted under a court order, will require monthly reports of information from mining facility operators until July 31, 2024. This survey will require collecting information such as the price of energy with the energy provider, the amount of electricity available and under the purchase agreement. Their data shows the amount of power actually withdrawn, as well as detailed information about the mining hardware such as the number of units, hash rate, power withdrawal, and age of the mining hardware.
It's amazing news that this poll has been temporarily halted by Federal District Judge Alan Well in Waco, Texas, but the final outcome of this lawsuit has yet to be decided. The next session will be tomorrow. In my view, it is very likely that an emergency survey could be permanently stopped due to failure to properly follow the procedure in the process of proceeding with a survey for emergency reasons.
That would be an amazing win for the ecosystem, and it would certainly give miners and the rest of us some time to rally and prepare for other regulatory concerns developing in the ecosystem, but if the case is ultimately decided in that direction, it doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet.
In parallel with the emergency survey, the EIA is seeking a 3-year extension of the data collection requirements under the traditional process with an open comment period. This extension will not result in any changes to the information required, or the penalties associated with non-compliance. Regardless of the outcome of the trial in Waco, this extension is not part of the emergency survey authorization and, in the process of facilitating the public comment period, is not, to my knowledge, subject to decisions based on failure to properly follow procedure when initiating a survey emergency. This is still going to happen.
The public comment period is open until April 9, 2024. Comments may be submitted through the Federal Register system here, or by email to Glenn McGrath at Glenn.McGrath@eia.gov.
I strongly encourage you to provide feedback, especially If you run any scale of commercial mining operations.
There are many issues with rationalization, but a few big ones include:
- How important are off-grid mining operations for the purpose of this survey, whether commercial or otherwise, given that their operations have no impact on energy prices or grid stability being completely disconnected from the power grid?
- What risks might exist for private operations that are not required to publicly disclose information about their retail inventory or energy consumption to disclose information about their business operations?
- Concerns about grid stability may be more generally given the growth and importance of grid downscaling strategies and capabilities, as demonstrated in Texas during Winter Storm Elliott.
- The fact that the poll came after a long period of overtly hostile messaging from the current executive administration was used as a very questionable basis for justification.
- The burden this can place on larger mining operations in regularly complying and maintaining the information needed to comply with the survey.
- Why are GPS coordinates of mining facilities necessary, given concerns about the stability of the power grid and electricity suppliers already required information within the framework of the survey.
Remember to be respectful and brief, but to the point in any comments. If your intention is simply to post sarcastic or sarcastic comments towards the agency, this is in no way helpful or constructive. Comments must be submitted by April 9, 2024.
